Published on Thursday, Mar 3 2011 by
The HM Plant Honda team got its pre-season testing campaign underway today at Calafat in Spain, as reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and Shane 'Shakey' Byrne began their preparations for the forthcoming British Superbike Championship season, whilst Jason O’Halloran also made his debut with the team ahead of his campaign in the National Superstock 1000 class.
The opening day of testing gave the riders the opportunity to get back on track after several months out of the seat and Kiyo ended the first day excited by the his latest specification Fireblade, whilst Shakey was also impressed by the speed and handling despite having made very little changes initially to adapt the Honda. Kiyo and Jason equally completed 71 laps on circuit with Shakey just slightly less with 64. The team is now focusing on its second day to push ahead further and improve pace and set-up.
Kiyo said at the end of the opening day: “I am very happy already to be back with the team and riding again because the few months off were very long. The HM Plant Honda Fireblade feels fast already and we have done some good work today on the electronics and tomorrow we will look more at the chassis and machine balance as I still want to be faster, but this will come with more laps. Each day we need to push hard and improve to be faster as the other riders will too but today was good for getting back on the bike and riding again.”
Shakey said: “It’s been a good day; if not a bit windy here which catches you off balance at times but aside from that we have made a really good start. We put in a good number of laps and got some of the initial work done that is always needed at the start of the season. My initial reaction to riding the HM Plant Honda is that the Fireblade is flippin’ fast, especially after a few months off! The engine characteristics are obviously different to the Ducati which I rode last season but it does feel like a missile. We haven’t made too many changes today, just tried to get my riding position right so I can adapt to the new bike and we have done some good work this afternoon on the electronics. I have some experienced guys working around me so tomorrow we are going to crack on and start making some changes.”
Jason said: “It was a good first day for me with the team and I am already feeling comfortable with the team and the Fireblade. We did plenty of miles today and made some slight changes to improve the rear of the bike and get some more stability. We aren’t a million miles away so tomorrow we can focus on the gearing to find some more improvements and then just keep plugging away before moving on to Cartagena.”
Team Manager Havier Beltran concluded: “I can only really echo what the riders have said; it has been a positive first day for us on track and as always the opening day gives the riders a chance to get settled back into riding. Kiyo obviously knows the team and the Fireblade, but for Shakey and Jason it was a chance to get settled in so that we can begin to push forward tomorrow